Professor races for cancer awareness, cure

In bicycling, the yellow jersey is the sign of a winner, someone who has taken the lead and is at the front of the pack. Sheila McGuirk wears that jersey.

But this professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine doesn’t wear it for winning a bicycle race. She earned the jersey by being a part of the team for the Tour of Hope, a highly competitive bike ride across the United States to bring awareness to the importance of cancer research and the search for a cure.

Like all of the team members on the tour, McGuirk has been touched by cancer. She was diagnosed eight years ago with colon cancer during a routine colonoscopy.

“The first thing you think about is, ‘Will I be there for my children? Will I die?'” McGuirk says.

But these internal struggles did not affect how she worked. She kept the news of her cancer a secret from most of her friends and colleagues until she went in for treatment.

“She didn’t let it show,” says Ken Nordlund, a clinical professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine. “We didn’t know it was an issue until she announced she was going to have surgery.”

But she wouldn’t allow cancer to keep her down, and after recovering from her treatments, the first thing McGuirk did was get on a bike.

“It was the first vehicle that showed I had whipped the disease,” she says.

Gradually, she began to race competitively. Then last year, when a fellow racer made her aware of the Tour of Hope and its purpose, McGuirk realized that this was something she had to do. She applied last year but didn’t make the team.

“When she told me that she had applied again, I kept my fingers crossed,” says Ian Duncan, a professor of medical science at the School of Veterinary Medicine. “This was a huge personal achievement for her.”

In May, while driving her daughter to music lessons, McGuirk received the call notifying her that she had been named to the team.

“She thought her mother had gone crazy,” McGuirk says. “I was overwhelmed with excitement for doing it. A lot of that was naiveté, but I was ready to do it.”

The next step for her was to begin training. Throughout the summer, she increased her bicycling routine to get in shape for the nearly 3,500-mile race in October.

“She trained her eyeballs out for this thing,” says Gary Oetzel, associate professor in the school. “She would do a competitive race on Saturday, finish the race and then went more.”

Her work often took a back seat to her training schedule. From July until the end of the race, she was able to shift her clinical rotations to allow her to train.

“I’ve been blessed in this university and my colleagues here,” McGuirk says. “I was lucky to have a flexible schedule to do that.”

And then, at last, came the race. Along with the other 20 riders on the Tour of Hope, she rode for eight days, in four- to five-hour shifts, to cover the distance between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

One brief stop along the tour was in Waterloo, Wis. Duncan drove from Madison to see the riders as they changed teams. Nearly 400 people, he says, gathered to see the bicyclists pass through.

“The Tour of Hope is a magnificent event and a wonderful way of publicizing new clinical approaches to curing cancer,” Duncan says. “This is a great way to promote a better understanding and to get people involved.”

Another way to garner understanding, McGuirk says, is through clinical trials. Years ago, she says, there were only a few drugs available for colon cancer treatment. But now, mostly because of involvement in clinical drug trials, more drugs have become available to help cancer patients.

“There is really an opportunity to beat cancer,” she says. “With awareness on the importance of the focus on cancer research, we’ll get there.”

And the Tour of Hope is one way McGuirk has gotten the message out. Her involvement even brings another important aspect of cancer research into the picture.

“My colleagues are also active members of groups doing clinical trials and engaging themselves in the search for a cure,” she says. “Veterinary medicine is closely aligned with human medicine in finding the cure.”

But the most important message, McGuirk says, is to be prepared ahead of time for the diagnosis. “Know where you can get information,” she says, “so you can help loved ones.”

The whole experience — from surviving cancer to riding with other cancer survivors, researchers and clinicians on the cross-country bicycle ride — has enlightened her.

“It’s about the value of friends, family, health; the beauty of having an opportunity you can take and run with.

“Everyone has said there’d be a huge letdown,” she says. “I’ve been waiting to crash and burn. I don’t feel it yet.”